


seven elements of art

by kyoukiros



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Artist AU, Gen, I Tried, One Shot, bianca and nico are my babies, di angelo, pure siblings, soft, the timeline is wonky but oh well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 13:34:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19791928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyoukiros/pseuds/kyoukiros
Summary: Bianca di Angelo loved art.Nico di Angelo remembered.Artist!Bianca and Art Geek!Nico AU





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hey!! this is my second fic i’ve posted here asjskdjksksjds i also posted it on tumblr @amessoftearsandbooks and on my ig @demipottergodfandams!! i hope you like this one and have a great day! <3

Bianca di Angelo has always loved art. 

It resonated with her, like how music would resonate with others. 

She could spend hours watching one of the Venician painters dab at their canvas, and she would plead her mother to bring Nico and her to art exhibitions or simply to bring her to the park, to watch the group of neighbourhood painters paint. 

The group knew her so well; they had recognised her talent immediately and helped her hone her skills. She had grown up learning to paint with them after school every day, and brought happiness to many of their lives. Her favourite was the old woman who lived the closest to them, old Mrs Luisa. The woman had had a greying head of hair and a great sense of humor. Bianca was the closest to her as she had taught her almost all she knew. 

Several weeks before she, her mother and her brother left for Split in Croatia for a few months, old Mrs Luisa had passed Bianca a book. She knew they were planning to go to America so the book she had gifted Bianca was titled ‘American Artists’ by Royal 

Bianca loved the book. Not only for sentimental reasons, for the reason that it talked about female artists. It gave her hope that maybe, just maybe, she would be able to make it in the art world too. Chapter 12, or chapter xii, was her favourite. It talked all about Mary Cassatt, an American Artist of French roots, and her impressionism. 

Bianca’s favourite medium was watercolour, but that never stopped her for trying other mediums. After reading about Mary Cassatt, she tried doing some impressionist style art, and it turned out surprisingly well. She ended up gifting the painting to Mrs Luisa, as a thank you for all the time she had spent teaching her about art. It was the last time they saw each other, and it ended up being a parting gift. 

When she and her brother lived in Split for a few months, she would go to Morpurgo, the bookstore at People’s Square, and spend all day reading the books on art there. The owner at the time, Eugen, was very kind to her, and was even willing to lend her the books to bring home, knowing that she would never steal from him. 

Before she left to go back to Venice with her family, she had visited the bookstore one last time, to give Eugen a watercolour painting she had made of the exterior of the shop. He had kindly thanked her before giving her a special art book with pages made specifically for watercolour paintings. She cherished the book, bringing it everywhere with her. It became her favourite thing, giving her the song of nostalgia and the story of her art journey. 

When the family moved to Washington, D.C about three years later, she had attended art class at boarding school. It helped her cultivate her art skills, but it wasn’t as good as her one-on-one lessons with late Mrs Luisa. 

For a blank, unremembered period of time, Bianca had painted a large array of paintings, and signed every single one of them. She gave them to pedestrians and shop owners and everyone else, giving an artwork to someone who admired it. She would paint anything and everything, from nature to buildings. Her favourite thing to paint was flowers, specifically sunflowers. The helianthus was special to her; they were her favourite colour, yellow, and they also reminded her of late Mrs Luisa’s sunflowers that she kept on the windowsill. Bianca loved them so. 

After her mother’s death, when Hades brought the siblings to the River Lethe, it pained him to wipe all the memories that Bianca had of painting, but he had no choice. He wiped her memory and extracted all the paintings she had painted during the timeframe to sell. But he had a favourite one that he kept. It was an unfinished watercolour of Maria before she passed, and it had been protected from the explosion as Bianca had been clutching the book with it tightly to her chest. 

When Bianca and Nico went to Westover hall, she did not paint, as she thought that she was a failure at it and that the last time she had painted was years ago. That was until her art project, at least. When she painted a beautiful watercolour landscape, everyone was awestruck, including her. Overnight, people stopped picking on her and isolating her, and one or two people even ate meals with her. 

However her short period of fame ended soon after, and people continued treating her like they always did, like dirt. She didn’t let it affect her though, and started painting once again. She got the top score for her art project, and it even got framed. Mere days before leaving the school, she painted a watercolour picture of the school pond with it’s multitude of swans, which Nico loved a lot, and she ended up giving to him. 

When she joined the hunters, the night before she left for the quest, she painted a last scene, a scene from a dream of hers that seemed like a memory. It was of her and her brother sitting down back to back, with the stars shining in the background. She gave it to Chiron the day she left, asking him to pass it to Nico while she left so he wouldn’t be so lonely. That was the last time she ever painted.


	2. Chapter 2

Nico remembered. 

He remembered the first time his mother brought him and Bianca to an art exhibition in Venice. He remembered that he had not wanted to go initially, but his sister had pleaded and pleaded him to follow them to see the exhibition. He remembered how in the end, he had given in, and it ended up being one of the best experiences in his lifetime. 

He remembered when Bianca first tried watercolour painting, after much encouragement from their old neighbour Mrs Luisa. He remembered the group of neighbourhood painters, who would sit in the park painting scenery so often that when they weren’t present there, the park felt emptier. He remembered how group had spotted Bianca’s talent and helped her cultivate it, honing her talent and shaping her into an incredible artist. 

He remembered when they had gone to Split as a family for several months and Bianca would spend whole days at the bookstore at the square, reading up on art or painting various knicks and knacks inside it. He remembered how the shop owner had passed Bianca an art journal before they left to go back to Italy. 

He remembered Bianca’s favourite artist, Mary Cassatt, and how she would go on and on for hours and hours about her, telling him all about her works and wonders, and teaching him all he knew about art. He remembered Bianca sleeping late finishing watercolour works for their mother, and bringing her paintbrushes everywhere. 

He remembered how Bianca taught him the seven elements of art, line, form, shape, space, texture, colour and value, and how she had even taught him how to paint. She had taught him everything she knew about art, although he was no good at it. 

However, he didn’t remember much after that. 

The next thing he remembered, was Bianca when they were at Westover Hall, years after the last memory. He remembered that she had taken art as a subject and done an art project in watercolour that everyone fell in love with. 

He remembered that after Bianca had left for the quest, Chiron approached him to pass him a watercolour painting of them, which he was very thankful for. He remembered that he had hugged the painting to his chest at night when he missed her so much it hurt. 

He remembered that when he had ran away from camp, the only things he owned was the art piece of the two of them and a painting with swans. 

And after that, for a while, Nico didn’t remember her art. 

It is several years later when he finds a long cylinder container and opens it in curiosity to find the paintings Bianca had given him over the years. There were so many, some of him, some of her, some scenery and a little bit of everything. It’s beautiful, but most of all, it made him feel at home. But they’re at war that year, and war had no place for the nostalgia of home, so he tucks the cylinder away again. 

Another year or so pasts, and now Nico is in Albania with Reyna and Hedge. There’s a museum nearby where they stopped, so Nico and Reyna go into it to buy some food for the journey. That’s when Nico realises. The artpiece opposite him, across the wall, it looks familiar.

When he walks closer, he notices the signature on the painting. ‘Bianca d.A.’ Bianca. His sister, his wonderful sister, had made that painting. It was the painting of the outside of that old bookstore from a while ago. It made him yearn for home, made him miss her so much. Seeing as it was his sister’s art, Nico had to find a way to take it back. 

After some careful coordination, they have finally sorted out the plan. It would involve Hedge and Reyna creating a huge diversion while Nico would shadow travel the painting and him away. They put the plan in action and Reyna and Hedge started to cause a distraction by arguing with each other loudly. As they attracted attention from the strangers nearby and drew their attention away from the painting, Nico shadow travels towards it and grabs it and shadow travels away from the museum, taking it with him. 

When he gets back to camp, he decides to gift the painting to someone he know will take good care of it. Chiron. The painting was truly beautiful, with all the details. It would be in good hands with Chiron, after all, he was so good at preserving paintings that he even had a few from the impressionists era that he could recognise. 

The first time Nico sees Hazel draw, he cries. He sobs into her sweater as she shows him a sketch of New Rome. She reminded him so much of Bianca, it hurt. But it made him happy too, like a small reminder, that even though Bianca isn’t with him, her spirit can live on through the art around him, through the artists and the art elements in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading this one shot!! have a great day uwu

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading y’alls :) remember to drink water and keep healthy!


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